The Way Home

“Kent-san, thank you very much for today. I’ll see you again at school. See you too, Al-chan.”

“Then I’ll see you at school.”

“Farewell, Lady Caro.”

After finishing the meeting with Baron Frederick, Kent and Al were seen off by Caro and left the mansion behind.

“Lady Caro is a truly good person with a very pure heart. As expected of someone chosen by Master.”

“That’s true. She really is a wonderful girl.”

Kent and Al walked through town while talking. To anyone around them, Kent looked like nothing more than a suspicious person talking to himself, but since he was so absorbed in his conversation with Al, he had forgotten to pay attention to how he looked to others.

Since it was a holiday, many people were walking along the main street today. To avoid the crowd, they took a side street one road over, and it seemed Al noticed something.

“Master, I just heard a scream.”

“Huh? I didn’t hear anything at all, though?”

Even though it was one road off the main street, it was not as though nobody was walking there. There was still a fair amount of foot traffic. Because of that, any small sound would be completely drowned out. Kent had heard nothing at all, but since Al was a fairy, perhaps her senses in that regard were sharper.

“Which direction did it come from?”

“Master, this way.”

Al flew off as though to guide him. Kent followed after her.

“She may look plain, but she’s got a nice body. Boss, let’s hurry up and do her already.”

“Don’t rush. First, strip her clothes off nice and clean.”

In an alley located two streets over from the road Kent and the others had been walking on, three large, well-built men had cornered a young woman.

“…Please stop.”

In a faint voice, the woman pleaded for help.

“Heh heh heh, with a voice that small, nobody’s coming to save you. Hyah.”

“Kyah!”

One of the men tore the woman’s clothes. Her upper body fell open, exposing her shapely breasts.

“Boss. She’s got some beautiful tits. Mind if I squeeze ’em?”

“Don’t break her before I get to do her.”

“Heh heh heh. Got the boss’s permission too. Wow, these are crazy soft.”

“…Please stop. Don’t squeeze them that hard… it hurts.”

Held down by the other men and unable to move, the woman had her breasts kneaded however the man pleased.

“Now then, let’s take a look downstairs too. Hyah.”

“Please stop… I’ll give you money, so please stop.”

Her clothes completely stripped away, the woman, now in the state she had been born in, pleaded through tears.

“We were only planning on taking your money, but when I saw a woman with a body this good, I changed my mind. Just be a good girl and let us have you.”

“Please stop. …Someone help me!”

The woman intended to raise her voice a little more than before, but from fear, hardly any sound came out.

“Master, this way.”

Guided by Al, Kent came all the way to the alley two streets in. From the place where Al had first noticed it, Kent thought that an ordinary human would never have heard it unless the woman had shouted extremely loudly.

“Whoa!”

Turning the corner and entering the alley, he found a woman who had been stripped naked and was surrounded by three men. One man was holding her down, another was groping her breasts, and the man who looked strongest was just then reaching for his trousers to expose his lower half.

“““What?”””

At Kent’s voice, the three men turned around almost at the same time.

“Hey, kid. We’re in the middle of something right now. I’m telling you for your own good—get lost already.”

The man who had his hand on his trousers let them go, looked at Kent, and said that.

“Please, help me.”

The woman begged Kent for help. Honestly, Kent knew he could not win against three well-built men. But once someone had cried out to him for help, Kent could not back down.

“You lot, get away from that woman!”

Kent declared that to the three men.

“Kid, you wanna do this? You’re wearing some pretty decent clothes. Looks like you’ve got a fair bit of money on you too. Heh heh heh.”

Kent was wearing the clothes Marie had given him. Lately, he had often been wearing them whenever he went out. They were his best outfit.

“Well, don’t complain even if you die. Though if you die, I guess you won’t be able to complain. Hah hah hah.”

Saying that, the three men pulled knives from their pockets.

“Master. Leave this to me. Please put a little distance between yourself and them.”

“All right. I’m counting on you.”

Kent accepted Al’s offer and replied in a low voice.

“What’re you muttering about? You two, get him!”

At the leader-like man’s command, the other two men rushed at Kent with knives in hand. Kent retreated and put distance between them just as Al had told him to.

“I won’t let even one of them lay a single finger on Master!”

A great number of things like tentacles—strictly speaking, they were plant vines…—burst out of the ground and wrapped themselves around the two men.

“Uwaah! What the hell is this?”

“Boss! Help us!”

Unable to move, the two men cried out to the leader-like man for help.

“What the hell is this guy? Using weird stuff like that. Don’t tell me you’re one of those magicians?”

At the sudden reversal of the situation, the leader-like man was stunned. But because they were in an alley, there was no escape route, and the only path left to him was to attack Kent.

“You bastard, screwing around with me like that.”

Knife at the ready, the leader-like man charged at Kent.

“Master! Watch out!”

As Al shouted, new vines burst up from the ground and attacked the leader-like man.

“Something like this!”

The man slashed down the attacking vines one after another with his knife.

“You think I’m gonna fall for the same trick over and over?”

The distance between the man and Kent closed, and Kent felt his life was in danger. In a panic, he stuck out his hands to try to defend himself.

“Kent, are you all right?”

Someone stepped between the man and Kent and caught the knife with a sword.

“I happened to see you going into the alley and got worried, so I came to take a look.”

Saying that, the person knocked the knife from the man’s hand with the sword and slashed him.

“Gyaaa!!!”

The leader-like man who had been slashed collapsed on the spot. The one who had come to help was Elnette.

“Sorry. You saved me.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. My husband-to-be was in danger. There was no way I wasn’t going to help.”

“Did you kill him?”

“No, he’s fine. His life should not be in danger… probably.”

“There was a bit of a pause just now, wasn’t there?”

Elnette said that while scratching her cheek with a raspy motion. Kent checked just in case, but the man seemed only to have lost consciousness, and his life did not appear to be in danger.

“Al, can you tie this one up too?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Oh? So the Alraune was here too?”

“I am here!”

With a pop, Al revealed herself. Then the three bound men were lined up off to the side.

“And also, starting today, my name is Al. Thank you very much for saving Master.”

Al bowed politely toward Elnette.

“As a wife-to-be, I merely did what was natural.”

With her sharp, composed expression as she said that, Elnette looked cool enough that Kent thought, if he were a woman, he might have fallen for her.

“Then I’ll go call the guards. Kent, please take care of that woman over there. I can’t bring out clothes for her, after all.”

Saying that, Elnette went off to call the guards.

“Are you injured anywhere?”

Saying that, Kent approached the woman. There, Kent noticed something. She was a plain-looking woman who did not stand out, and she was probably older than Kent. But her completely naked, well-fleshed body was, from a man’s point of view, extremely alluring. Kent calmed himself and put on a composed face.

“Thanks to you, I was saved. I’m not injured. Thank you very much. I don’t even know how to thank you…”

“What terrible misfortune. And your clothes were torn to pieces too.”

The clothes the men had ripped from her were scattered miserably around them. For the time being, Kent had clothes suited to her figure brought over through the terminal. The design was not very good, but it was better than being completely naked. Since she did not seem to know how to put them on, Kent helped her get dressed.

“You seem used to dealing with women.”

“I don’t think that’s true, though?”

“You seemed to know a woman’s body in every little detail, and your movements were efficient, so… if I’ve offended you, I’m sorry.”

In front of the woman, Al did not reveal herself, and instead floated beside Kent while observing the situation. Understanding Al’s position, Kent chose not to introduce her and continued the conversation as it was.

“I only moved to this city the other day, but while I was walking around exploring it, I guess I wasn’t paying proper attention to where I was going, and I bumped into those men just now, and they started harassing me.”

“This city seems comparatively safe, but once in a very great while, there are people like that too, so please be careful.”

“Yes, thank you very much.”

“Kent, I brought the guards.”

Elnette returned with the guards. The three men were handed over to the guards, and the woman who had been attacked was taken into protective custody and led away. The only ones left behind were Kent, Elnette, and Al.

“That was rough today. Something else might happen, so I’ll walk you home.”

Saying that, Elnette half-forcibly escorted Kent all the way back home. Afterward, when Marie heard what had happened, she pulled Kent’s face into her bountiful chest and said,

“Kent-san, please don’t do anything reckless.”

Beside her, Elnette was pressing a hand to her own chest with a frustrated look on her face.